Jennifer Hudson did not get close to the winner's circle when she competed on "American Idol" in 2004. But her scorching performance as talented but sidelined singer Effie White in the film version of "Dreamgirls" soon set her on a path that has come with plenty of victory laps.
The last few years have been particularly celebratory for Hudson. After drawing critical raves for her portrayal of the legendary Aretha Franklin in "Respect," Hudson scored a 2021 Daytime Emmy Award as an executive producer of the interactive media project "Baba Yaga." And in June she collected a Tony Award as a producer of best musical "A Strange Loop."
Those wins established Hudson as an EGOT — the small group of artists who have won an Emmy, Oscar, Grammy and Tony. She is the youngest woman to join the elite club, and only the second Black woman. (The first is Whoopi Goldberg.)
